Andrus helps Sox rally late, beat A’s
OAKLAND » Elvis Andrus hit a tiebreaking double against his former team with two outs in a fiverun ninth inning, and the Chicago White Sox — held hitless until the seventh — rallied past the Oakland Athletics 5-3 on Friday night.
Eloy Jiménez started the comeback from a 3-0 deficit with a one-out homer against A.J. Puk (3-2), who issued a walk and plunked a batter. Andrew Vaughn added an RBI single and Romy González delivered a tying single with two outs.
Oakland challenged that pinch-runner Adam Engel was out at the plate on the throw home, but the safe call was confirmed after a replay review.
Andrus then hit a tworun double to left field, putting Chicago ahead 5-3.
Liam Hendriks, another former A’s star, closed it out with a big fist pump after his 32nd save. Aaron Bummer (2-1) pitched the eighth for the win.
Oakland’s Austin Pruitt pitched five no-hit innings as a fill-in starter. Joel Payamps worked another hitless inning before Jiménez’s clean one-out single in the seventh.
Pruitt made a spot start after right-hander James Kaprielian was scratched. It was Pruitt’s first start since 2019 with the Rays.
Sean Murphy had an RBI double and Tony Kemp singled in a run for the A’s, who went ahead on Ramón Laureano’s RBI groundout in the first. Oakland lost its fourth in a row and eighth in nine games.
The 33-year-old Pruitt didn’t allow a baserunner until former A’s shortstop Andrus reached on an error by second baseman Sheldon Neuse to begin the fourth. Vaughn then reached on third baseman Vimael Machin’s two-base throwing error past first in the fifth, but Pruitt escaped unscathed.
José Abreu had his 12-game hitting streak snapped with his first hitless game since Aug. 23 at Baltimore.
White Sox right-hander Lucas Giolito struck out six over six innings. Chicago won for the eighth time in 10 games.
Since the start of the 2017 season, the White Sox are just 5-12 at the Coliseum and haven’t won a series here since taking three of four to begin the ‘16 campaign.
STEW’S NUMBER CEREMONY » Right-hander Dave Stewart will finally get his No. 34 jersey retired by the A’s in a pregame ceremony Sunday.
He’s expecting 200 family members and friends, and additionally former teammates and fans. Mark McGwire is expected to be part of the festivities.
Stewart, now 65, found out in August 2019 the club planned to retire his number but then it didn’t happen during the pandemicshortened 2020 season or last year.